Traditional Song

3 TraditionalSong l3-9 Traditional Song Week realizes a dream of a comprehensive program completely devoted to traditional styles of singing. Unlike programs where singing takes a back seat to the instrumentalists, it is the entire focus of this week, which aims to help restore the power of songs within the larger traditional music scene. Here, finally, is a place where you can develop and grow in confidence about your singing, and have lots of fun with other folks devoted to their own song journeys. Come gather with us to explore various traditional song genres under the guidance of experienced, top-notch instructors. When singers gather together, magical moments are bound to happen! For Traditional Song Week’s ninth year and our celebration of The Swannanoa Gathering’s 25th Anniversary, we are proud to present a gathering of highly influential singers and musicians who have remained devoted over the years to preserving and promoting traditional song. Tuesday evening will be our big Hoedown for a Traditional Country, Honk-Tonk, Western Swing Song and Dance Night. Imagine singing to a house band of Josh Goforth, Robin and Linda Williams and Ranger Doug or Tim May, Tim O’Brien, and Mark Weems! So, bring your boots and hats, your voices and instruments, and get ready to bring on the fun! Our Community Gathering Time each day just after lunch affords us the opportunity to experience together, as one group, diverse topics concerning our shared love of traditional song. This year’s spotlight will feature folks who have been “on the road” and singing for quite a while. Robin and Linda Williams, regulars on the A Prairie Home Companion show since the 80’s, will share their 44 years of song…what a treat! We’ll also hear up close and personal from two of today’s finest song collector’s from Scotland and Ireland, Alan Reid and Len Graham. The “Life of O’Brien’ will be a highlight as we listen to Tim O’Brien and his stories of singing and playing guitar since age 12, and being influenced by North Carolina’s treasured Doc Watson. We’ll even have a movie day and watch one of John Cohen’s films presenting NC ballad singer Dillard Chandler, Josh Goforth and Sheila Kay Adams’ relatives. As requested by students, we will again feature some classes in singing with instruments (guitar and banjo). Dáithí Sproule, one of the very first to adapt and explore DADGAD tuning in Irish music, will teach a new class in “Accompanying Songs in DADGAD Tuning,” Sheila Kay Adams will teach “Singing With the Banjo” for the first time at Traditional Song Week, and Ranger Doug, the idol of American youth, back by popular demand, will teach a guitar class called “Swing While You Sing.” A very special welcome to new staff Tim O’Brien, Robin & Linda Williams, Alan Reid, David Roth, and Kathy Bullock, a seasoned gospel singer from Berea College in KY, who will also lead our morning warm ups. We are honored to have back some staff who add so much to the programs: Cathy Jordan, Sheila Kay Adams, Dáithí Sproule, Matt Watroba, Mark Weems, Len Graham, Ranger Doug, Josh Goforth, Melissa Hyman and Tim May. We’ll have classes in gospel, bluegrass, songs of Hank Williams, cowboy songs, songs from Ireland, England, Scotland, North Carolina mountain ballads, songwriting in the tradition, finding your voice and own style, choosing your songs, shape-note, duet harmony, arrangement, music theory, community singing, singing with instruments, children’s songs and more! The week will also feature nightly concerts and singing sessions, the Old Farmers Ball dance, a wonderful Children’s Program, ample opportunities to mix with other singers, and midday Community Gathering times. ROBIN & LINDA WILLIAMS Robin and Linda Williams are like your next-door the integrity of Western music, they have themselves become modern-day icons by neighbors – assuming your neighbors are the salt-of- branding the genre with their own legendary wacky humor and way-out Western wit, the-earth and top-flight performers to boot. You feel and all along encouraging buckaroos and buckarettes to live life “The Cowboy Way!” right at home with Robin and Linda, and their music A yodeler of breathtaking technique, Ranger Doug is also an award-winning Western stays with you like an old friend. For over forty years music songwriter in his own right – and a distinguished music historian whose 2002 they have crisscrossed the continent (and beyond), Vanderbilt University Press book, Singing in the Saddle, was the first comprehensive performing the tunes they love – a distinctive blend look at the singing cowboy phenomenon that swept the country in the 1930s. In 2006, of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country mu- Ranger Doug’s Classic Cowboy Corral debuted on XM Satellite Radio, still heard weekly sic. But their chops don’t stop at singing. They are also first-class instrumentalists and on SiriusXM Channel 56. During thirty-six years with the Riders, he has chalked up superb songwriters, their songs having been recorded by some of the greats in country over 6600 concert appearances in all 50 states and 10 countries, appearing in venues and Americana music including names like Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, George everywhere from the Nashville National Guard Armory to Carnegie Hall, and from Hamilton IV, Tim & Mollie O’Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea and The the White House and county fairs to the Hollywood Bowl. www.ridersinthesky.com Seldom Scene. A snapshot of career highlights include 23 recordings, appearances on The Grand Old Opry, Austin City Limits, Music City Tonight, Mountain Stage and a 40 year association with the iconic radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, including a TIM O’BRIEN 20 year stint and two CDs with The Hopeful Gospel Quartet, and a Robert Altman- Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, singer songwriter and multi- directed movie. www.robinandlinda.com instrumentalist Tim O’Brien grew up singing in church and in school, and after seeing Doc Watson on TV, became a lifelong devotee of old time and bluegrass music. Tim first toured na- RANGER DOUG tionally with famed Colorado bluegrass band Hot Rize, which Guitarist Ranger Doug, “Governor of the Great State of went on to win numerous IBMA awards. Kathy Mattea scored a Rhythm” and “Idol of American Youth” is best known country hit with his song “Walk The Way The Wind Blows,” and as the lead singer with Riders in the Sky, the multiple soon more artists like Nickel Creek and Garth Brooks covered Grammy-winning cowboy quartet and members of the his songs. Tim has released 14 solo CD’s, as well as collaborations Grand Ole Opry, the Western Music Association’s Hall of with his sister Mollie O’Brien, songwriter Darrell Scott, and noted old-time musician Fame, the Country Music Foundation’s Walkway of Stars, Dirk Powell. He’s performed or recorded with Steve Earl, Mark Knopfler, Bill Frisell, and the Walk of Western Stars. While remaining true to and Steve Martin, and produced records for Yonder Mountain Stringband, David 4 KATHY BULLOCK Bromberg, Laurie Lewis and Canada’s Old Man Luedecke. Notable releases include the Dr. Kathy Bullock is a professor of music at Berea Col- bluegrass Dylan covers of Red On Blonde, the Celtic-Appalachian fusion of The Crossing, lege, Berea, Kentucky where she has worked for the past and the Grammy-winning folk of Fiddler’s Green. His newest CD, 2015’s Pompadour, twenty-three years. She earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Music includes a banjo-driven version of James Brown’s “Get Up Offa That Thing.” O’Brien Theory from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and formed his own record label, Howdy Skies Records, in 1999, and launched the digital a B.A. in Music from Brandeis University, MA. She teaches download label Short Order Sessions (SOS) with his partner Jan Fabricius last year. Music Theory, African-American Music, Ethnomusicology, Tim was an instructor here in our second year, and we are very pleased to welcome General Studies courses, directs the Black Music Ensemble, him back. www.timobrien.net (an eighty-voice choir that specializes in performance of African-American sacred music) and has designed and completed new study abroad programs for Berea College students traveling to Zimbabwe, Ghana and Jamaica. She MATT WATROBA gives numerous presentations, performances, lectures and workshops on such subjects There are few that can boast a first-name-basis relationship with as “Singing in the Spirit,” “From Negro Spirituals to Jamaican Revival Songs,” “African- almost all of the major folk musicians on the North American American Sacred Music” and “African-American and Appalachian Musical Connec- continent, as well as a comprehensive grasp of the folk music tions.” She also conducts workshops and other music programs in gospel music and genre both past and present. One who can is teacher, writer gospel piano at schools, camps, churches and civic organizations in the United States, and performer, Matt Watroba. His love of folk, roots and Europe and Africa. www.drkwb.com traditional music led him to his position as the host of the Folks Like Us program on Detroit Public Radio, a position he held for over 22 years. In 2007, he partnered with Sing Out! magazine to create the Sing Out! Radio Magazine, an MARK WEEMS hour-long syndicated radio show heard across the country and on XM Satellite Radio. Mark Weems is a multi-instrumental music teacher and He was awarded “Best Overall Folk Performer” by the Detroit Music Awards for the professional performer of traditional music.

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